ARGUS / ALLOCATOR INTELLIGENCE
No. 34 · Superannuation
Hostplus · Australian superannuation fund · A$134.5B

When Hostplus disagrees with a manager's mark, a board committee picks the number

Hostplus publishes the policy that governs how its unlisted assets are valued, and three clauses in it turn the vague worry about who marks a private holding into questions you can put to a manager. Where feasible, the same valuer should not value the same asset more than three years running. The fund can commission a second valuation from a different valuer and choose between the two. And the committee that decides is made of directors, not the chief investment officer. Its regulator requires some of this. It does not require the rotation.

Key numbers, and what they mean

Three years
The cap on one valuer's tenure on one asset, in full: "Where feasible, valuers will be rotated so that the same party is not used to value a particular asset over a period greater than three years in most circumstances." The lead individual rotates too. APRA's standard requires neither.
The board
A committee of directors, not the chief investment officer, decides whether to reject a manager's mark and commission its own. APRA's 2021 thematic review found "several instances where valuation committees were headed by Chief Investment Officers and where the committee had the ability to determine or influence valuations".
Once a year
The policy's floor for revaluing unlisted assets, typically quarterly or half-yearly in practice, and private equity may sit at entry price. The guidance it quotes asks for quarterly, then allows less where the trustee can show the frequency is appropriate.
42%
Unlisted assets as a share of the default option's target mix at 30 June 2025, on our grouping of the fund's own labels. Hostplus separately states that the option aims to hold 41% in unlisted assets. Either way it is a target, not a holding.

Balanced option target mix, June 2025

International shares29%
Australian shares21%
Infrastructure11%
Credit and alternatives11%
Property10%
Private equity10%
Fixed interest and cash8%
Target weights for the Balanced (MySuper) option, its own ten labels grouped by us to seven. The unlisted grouping is infrastructure, credit and alternatives, property and private equity, 42% together. The report prints no unlisted subtotal of its own.

The read-through

From the report
Takeaway: how to apply it to a portfolio
On rotation: "Where feasible, valuers will be rotated so that the same party is not used to value a particular asset over a period greater than three years in most circumstances. At a minimum, the principal person leading these valuations (at the Independent Valuer) should be rotated at a reasonable interval." Nothing in APRA's prudential standard asks for this.
Ask who values each unlisted position, how long that firm has held the engagement, and whether the person signing has ever changed. Ask for the dates, not the name. A valuer in year nine on the same asset has a relationship with it, and no regulator anywhere is going to ask this question on your behalf.
On disagreement: "the SIG may request another independent valuation to be performed by a different valuer to provide a second opinion; The SIG may choose to accept the valuation it deems most representative of the asset." The SIG is a committee of directors, and the trustee "always reserves the right to conduct its own valuation, via the appointment of an external valuer, in such instances".
Ask who at the manager signs the final mark, and whether that person is paid on it. Then ask for the escalation path for a disputed valuation in writing, before you commit, because afterwards you are asking a favour rather than exercising a right. Most agreements give you neither the second opinion nor the choice between them.
On frequency: the floor is "at least annually", with an explicit carve-out letting private equity and venture capital sit "at the entry price" or the last transaction price. The policy quotes its own regulator's guidance that assets "should be valued at least quarterly, and where valuations are conducted less frequently, the Trustee would demonstrate it has determined that the valuation frequency is appropriate". The trigger ladder runs Watch, Alert and Trigger, and the numbers behind those rungs sit in a document the fund does not publish.
Get the contractual minimum revaluation frequency rather than the typical one, the specific events that force an off-cycle mark, and the numeric threshold that fires them. A fund that will describe its ladder but not its rungs has disclosed a process rather than a policy, and a holding carried at entry price is a receipt rather than a valuation.
The Argus lensWho values your private holding, how often, and what you can do when you disagree are all settled in the fund documents before you sign, and almost nobody reads those clauses until a mark is already in dispute. Reading them while you still have leverage is the work we do. Benchmark your deals in the Portal →

About the source

Hostplus publishes a board-approved Valuations Policy for the superannuation fund and a near-identical one for the pooled superannuation trust that holds the assets. Both were approved on 25 March 2026 and are next due for review in March 2027. They set out the asset categories, the roles of the trustee and the Special Investment Group, the rotation and independence rules for valuers, the revaluation triggers and the process for rejecting a valuation. Fund size and the target mix are from its annual report for the year ended 30 June 2025.

View the source →